Tag Archive for 'Miner Willy'

Willy - The Hero of the Spectrum - Part 2

. 0 Comments Tags: , , , . Published by Odrakir on February 19, 2009 in Retro . 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

We continue our journey through the world of Willy, the Hero of the Spectrum. See how it all began here .

Part 2 - Jet Set Willy
I confess that when I heard the name Jet Set Willy did not immediately joined the Manic Miner, but a game for the Spectrum called Jetpack ... well, he was pissed, had no excuse.

Jet Set Willy is a simple game, like most games of the time. The Miner Willy gets a huge fortune (possibly with his previous adventure) and buy a huge house! After a party, Willy has to clean the house, collecting various objects in its path because only then Mary will enter the room to rest, the problem is that the house is infested with strange creatures that complicate the task of Willy.

Jet Set Willy was released in 1984 although it was initially announced its launch for Christmas 1983 and quickly received with great scores and positive reviews. Despite all this, JSW was a very difficult game and Software Projects would eventually release a "patch" format pokes to decrease the difficulty. Probably the first game to have an update after the release. For this to be possible, the Software Projects had to give the public some information about how to merge the pokes in basic loader, which led to much hacking and experimentation by players. JSW become more quickly hacked the game of all time. The changes were so great that even editors levels appeared to JSW, allowing players to create their own levels. All this made ​​the game remained in the tops for a long time and was a predictable sequel. (Continued)

Willy - The Hero of the Spectrum - Part 1

. 0 Comments Tags: , , , . Published by Odrakir on February 17, 2009 in Retro . 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

When speaking of the Spectrum and its games, along with the nostalgia, we come to memory certain titles.

In conversations on this topic, one of the first names that comes up is the Manic Miner and its main character, the Miner Willy Willy pros or just friends. Manic Miner is one of the most recognized and remembered titles Spectrum, along with Chuckie Egg, but today I decided to write about the two games where Willy was the main character: Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy.

Part 1 - Manic Miner
I remember that when Spectrum played with my friends, was a rare "session" in which it was played Manic Miner. The game was worshiped even by the "older" and says, who remembers those times as well (1983), the Manic Miner was a great success so it went, perhaps the first game of Spectrum considered a great success.


In addition to great in the true sense, since there were 20 frames in this game (great for that time), from the viewpoint of programming, Manic Miner was a pearl. Ran smoothly in the ZX and brought a dynamic to a height never seen before. Since the music while looping over and over and over until the various types of enemies that Willy had to avoid, fully animated, unlike other games where sprites just moved on the screen.
This all created only by a programmer of 18 years named Matthew Smith, who threw his second game (Styx was the first) by Bug-Byte Software.

Your source of inspiration to create the Manic Miner was a game called Miner 2049'er for the TRS-80. Smith would leave the Bug-Byte after the success of Manic Miner and form the Software Projects with two partners. Later, Smith manages the rights of Manic Miner through a hole in the judicial system and a second Manic Miner is released by Software Projects, under the name Manic Miner Second Edition. However in all this game is almost identical to the first Manic Miner, changing only some sprites of the characters and artwork from the cover of the game.

This title would disappoint fans of Manic Miner and Willy, but the real sequel was only a few months away in Jet Set Willy ... (Continued)